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Lina entered her room in the inn and closed it behind her with a sigh of relief.

Finally. Away from all of them. She looked down at herself and smiled bitterly. Wasn’t it sad when one of the greatest sorceresses in the world had to resort to excuses to get away from her friends. Without even going down, she could imagine all of them in the tavern. Zelgadiss mildly sipping a cup of cocoa, Gourry eating his piles of food in a slightly slower manner because she wasn’t there and Amelia struggling to get at least some food into her mouth before all disappeared down the glutton’s stomach.

She shook her head. She hadn’t been able to stand how normal everything had been after their last failed quest.

Failed.

Again.

Her mouth twisted as she sat down on the bed and glanced down at her fingers which started interlacing with each other.

All had thought that these were games to her. That this obsession she had with magic was something trivial, something frivolous.

How wrong they were.

Zelgadiss’s search for his cure was nothing compared to her own. She had traveled to so many different places, so many different times. And now, she was just too tired. Years and years of failure was taking its toll on her and sometimes, she just wished she could give up.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t that simple.

Getting up, she started to change but as she removed her sorceress outfit, she noticed a hole in the cape. Shaking her head, she searched for a sewing kit amongst her inter-dimensional pockets and sitting down tailor fashion to start work on repairs.

As the needle stabbed in and out of the heavy fabric, she allowed its rhythm to soothe her even as she allowed her mind to drift.

How long had it been since she had first donned this silly outfit? Then, it had seemed like a lark, something strange and new. Now, it was old and familiar, each uneven stitch, each patched up hole a familiar friend. She had started out with it.

If only she could die with it.

She had only changed it once. But that had been because of the Kouma War. When it had ended, fashions had changed drastically and she still remembered giggling at the idea of people actually wearing such strange outfits.

Now, she wished that she didn’t have such memories. Memories which marked her age and experience and experience, memories which pulled at her and whispered of the curse she held within her 15 year old body.

Almost. If one added several thousand years to that innocuous 15.

She bit the thread and smiled. Yes. That would do. Placing the needle and thread away, she stood up and stretched. Walking to the window, she opened it and stared up at the bright blue sky.

It was a beautiful day. It would be nice to stop fighting against her destiny, to stop searching for a cure, to actually… die.

But she couldn’t, could she? It was just another cruel game played by L-sama who had taken a liking to a small bubbly teenager a long, long time ago.

Enough of a liking that she had gifted her with powers beyond her imagination and an eternal life, enough to actually entrust her with the sacred, secret duty of ensuring that the world didn’t collapse on itself, enough to actually make her guardian of the world and all its inhabitants despite the fact that no one actually knew of her existence, enough to make

her have to go on saving the world, day after day, despite of the fact that she was getting tired.

So tired. Tired enough that she now searched for a cure from her “condition” so that she could finally rest.

Yes, it had been a cruel liking indeed. Lina tilted her head to the sun.

If only…

“Lina? Are you up? Gourry-sama wants to know if you want to come with us to a nearby restaurant. They’re having a buffet.”

Her face lit up and slamming the door open, she grabbed Amelia’s hand and raced to where the rest of the group, dependable Gourry, enigmatic Zelgadiss, waited outside. She smiled at them.

Her… friends.

“Well, what are all of you waiting for? Let’s go!”

And yet sometimes, she wouldn’t change a thing.

¤¤ owari ¤¤